id in 1875. It has been called the corner-stone
of the history of the American continent. Las Casas possessed
important documents, among them the papers of Columbus, now lost. In
his long life, moreover, he knew many of the early discoverers and
many statesmen, as Columbus, Cortes, Ximenes, Pizarro, Gattinora, and
he was the contemporary of three sovereigns interested in the West
Indies,--King Ferdinand the Catholic, the Emperor Charles V., and King
Philip II. of Spain.

Las Casas is sometimes taxed with having brought negro slavery into
America. In his profound compassion for the Indians he maintained that
the negroes were better fitted for slave labor than the more delicate
natives. But the Portuguese had imported African slaves into the
colonies long before Las Casas suggested it, while he in time
renounced his error, and frankly confesses it in his history.

He was a large-hearted, large-brained man, unprejudiced in an age of
bigotry; of unwearied industry and remarkable powers of physical
endurance that enabled him to live a life of many-sided activities, as
priest and missionary, colonist, man of business, and man of letters.
As a historian he was a keen observer of men and of nature, and
chronicled with great exactness the social and physical conditions of
the countries he traversed. His merits are summed up in the following
words by John Fiske, in his 'Discovery of America':--

"He was one of the best historians of his time, and wrote a
most attractive Spanish style, quaint, pithy, and nervous,--a
style which goes straight to the mark and rings like true
metal. I do not mean to be understood as calling it a
_literary_ style. It is not graceful like that of great
masters of expression such as Pascal or Voltaire. It is not
seldom cumbrous and awkward, usually through trying to say
too much at once. But in spite of this it is far more
attractive than many a truly artistic literary style. There
is a great charm in reading what comes from a man brimful of
knowledge and utterly unselfish and honest. The crisp
shrewdness, the gleams of gentle humor and occasional sharp
flashes of wit, and the fervid earnestness, in the books of
Las Casas, combine to make them very delightful. It was the
unfailing sense of humor, which is so often wanting in
reformers, that kept Las Casas from developing into a
fanatic.... In contemplating such a li